Teacher Feature: Ryan MacKinney

In high school, Ryan MacKinney loved photography. He never went anywhere with out a camera.

Ryan was working in the mail room at Propaganda Films where there were a lot of movie producers and directors. Ryan says they were doing “very exciting things,” and he started to get drawn in to the business. Along with working in the mail room, two movies came out that really solidified him getting into the filmmaking business – “Forest Gump” and “Pulp Fiction.”

Ryan did not go to college right out of high school, instead he started to work in filmmaking. After the Screen Actors Guild strike in 2000, Ryan decided to go back to school. That is when Ryan came to College of Canyons and studied for two years. After his two years at COC, Ryan transferred to Cal State Northridge to earn his bachelor’s degree in filmmaking. This past year, Ryan was offered a job to teach a cinematography class in the Media Entertainment Arts Department.

Ryan is still working in the business on commercials. He has shot commercials for Pepsi, Coca Cola, K-Mart, Walmart, and Nike.